Baptists

The Baptists are a denomination of Protestant Christianity which is distinguished by baptizing professed believers only (through complete immersion), as opposed to infant baptism (and the pouring of water on the head or sprinkling water). The Baptist movement originated in Amsterdam, Holland in 1609 among the English separatist community, which split from the Church of England with the goal of recreating the original Christian Church from scratch. In 1639, Roger Williams established a baptist church in Providence, Rhode Island in the Thirteen Colonies, the first Baptist church in North America. The First Great Awakening energized the Baptist movement, which became the largest Christian community in the American South, especially among African-American slaves, who, until 1800, were mostly animist; Baptist and Methodist ministers preached hope and redemption to enslaved people who fashioned Christian gospels into a communal music of spirituals about salvation, deliverance, and resistance. Religious expression helped slaves maintain a sense of hope and ultimate salvation. In 1845, the Baptist congregations in the United States split over the issue of slavery, with the Southern Baptist Convention believing that slaveholders could still serve as missionaries. After the American Civil War, freedmen founded the National Baptist Convention and other black churches. Today, over 100 million Christians identify as Baptists.